Although not as busy as they were in late December, the main markets emerged from the long holiday season with a moderate amount of business. Yet it will take a little more time for the markets to get organized before any patterns develop. U.S. Gulf On routes to the Far East, there has been a kind of a rollover situation from December in which January space has become pretty scarce, yet freight rates are essentially unchanged. This may change over the next week or so as pressure builds from thos...

Global demand for all lubricants has been projected to rise slowly in coming years, but industry sources forecast significantly faster growth for synthetic and semi-synthetic products. Recent increases in demand for synthetics and semi-synthetics was enabled by expansion in API Group III base stock supply, and coming introduction of more Group III capacity should allow a further uptake of higher-performing lubes. The overall lubricant market is expected to grow less than 1 percent annually throu...

Zschimmer & Schwarz announced last week the acquisition of Inolexs Lexolube division, whose synthetic esters are used primarily in industrial lubricants, and said it is building another esterification plant to increase its own production capacity by more than 50 percent. Zschimmer & Schwartz Inc. is based in Milledgeville, Georgia, and its parent company Zschimmer & Schwarz Group is headquartered in Lahnstein, Germany. According to its web site, the Lexolube synthetic esters can be u...

Though demand for finished lubricants in Brazil has steadily declined since its peak in 2013, the country can expect modest growth during late 2017, said Ricardo Mussa, chief executive officer at Cosan Lubricants. Despite a recession lasting eight consecutive quarters, Brazils lubricant market has been keeping up with global trends. Group III has taken over as the fastest growing base stock, with a growth rate of 7 percent, and is expected to take up 12 to 13 percent of the market by 2019. As Gr...

WD-40 Co. posted $11.8 million in net income for its first quarter ending Nov. 30, a 3 percent decrease from a year earlier. For the WD-40, 3-in-One and Blue Works lubricants segment, worldwide net sales reached 79.2 million for the first fiscal quarter, down 4 percent from a year earlier. San Diego-based WD-40s fiscal year runs from Sept. 1 to Aug. 31. Compared to the year-earlier quarter, net sales in the Americas declined by 4 percent, down to $44.8 million. WD-40 said the decline in net sale...

Russian lube maker Gazpromneft-Lubricants sold 900 tons of finished lubes in Georgia in 2016, or 20 percent more than the year before. The South Caucasus former Soviet republic is a tiny lubricant market, with annual demand of just 11,200 tons in 2016, according to Gazprom Neft. But the company views it as a key stepping stone to expansion in the region. Next it plans to enter the Azerbaijan market. Source: Gazprom Neft Gazprom Neft said its growth in Georgia’s lubricants market stems fro...